Union Dutchmen celebrating after they won their first ECAC Championship in Atlantic City 2012

Something seemed off when I saw this picture after Union had clinched its first ECAC Championship in Atlantic City in March. No, I do not mean that as a sarcastic comment about how far Union has come in its 21 years in the ECAC. I meant that a key element in the photo, the focal point even, was different than it should be. The Whitelaw Cup awarded to the 2012 Union College Dutchmen looked different than the Whitelaw Cup that had been awarded to previous ECAC Champions. I knew that it looked very different from the Whitelaw Cup awarded to Cornell in 2010 when I had the pleasure of watching that dominant team defeat a well-coached Union team to claim yet another ECAC Championship. I watched the 2011 ECAC Championships on CBS Sports and recognized that Yale's 2011 Whitelaw Cup was nearly identical to the one awarded to Cornell in 2010. So, I decided to research the history of the appearance of the Whitelaw Cup.

Union Dutchmen 2012

Yale Bulldogs 2011

Harvard Crimson 2006

Cornell Big Red 2010

Cornell Big Red 2005

Princeton Tigers 2008

The results of my search are posted above in a gallery of six Whitelaw Cups awarded over the span of seven years. These were the years for which it was easiest to find an image in which the form of the Cup was readily discernible. As one is always able on WAFT, click the images if you want to view a larger version for better comparison.

The trend is fairly pronounced. The appearance of the Whitelaw remains relatively constant from Cornell's eleventh Whitelaw in 2005 through Yale's second in 2011. The slight variation that is noticeable is that the Whitelaw had a less polished patina in the earlier 2000s than it did in 2006. Notwithstanding the brilliance of the finish of the Cup, very little changed in its appearance. It maintained the same shape and general appearance.

The form of the Whitelaw changed drastically some time between March 2011 and March 2012 when Union celebrated with it on the ice of Boardwalk Hall. Maybe it was the seabreeze. Maybe it was the Jersey Shore. But, the Cup increased in volume by what appears to be a factor of four. The accessory, understated handles on the side of the Cup grew. They extended from the base of the Cup to the top, scrolling into the beveled opening, much unlike the small handles that extended only slightly from the base of the Whitelaw that Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and Cornell hoisted. The height of the Whitelaw grew considerably too to about 1.25 the total height of the trophy.

The next thing I looked at to see exactly how much history and tradition was altered within a matter of one season of hockey was to check what Whitelaws from further back than 2005 looked like. The only place where I knew that there were many on displays was Cornell's locker room in which a large portion of the collection of trophies that Cornell has won are displayed. I used a video in which Schafer was interviewed in the locker room to get a glimpse at what those previous trophies looked like. I've pieced the images together into a panaroma, found below, of the view of the trophies from part of the locker room.

An array of some of the trophies that are displayed proudly in the Big Red's locker room including some of Cornell's twelve ECAC Championship trophies. The appearance has remained fairly constant from 1967 through 2010.

The dates on each trophy cannot be deciphered. However, based upon the timing of ECAC rebranding and the 2005 photo in the above gallery, one can conclude that the trophy in the center is Cornell's 2010 Whitelaw. The 2005 photo in the above gallery appears most similar to one of the other three similarly looking cups in the photo (the far left and the two rightmost). That leaves two trophies that look nearly identical to the trophies in the above gallery (2005-11) remaining. If one assumes that the four ECAC Championship trophies pictured are Cornell's four most recent ECAC Championship wins, the oldest would have been won in 1997. That would mean that the Whitelaw Cup remained unchanged for at least 14 years.

Why the change? I checked the ECAC Hockey website and press releases to read what was said about the Whitelaw Cup in formal press releases. I was suprised pleasantly to find that the ECAC press release that describes the Whitelaw Cup includes a photograph of a representative Whitelaw. It is below pictured.

The formal ECAC media release that describes the regular-season title trophy and Whitelaw Cup. It shows a representative Whitelaw Cup.

The representative Whitelaw Cup looks like those won from at least 1997-2011, but likely even earlier. It looks very different from the trophy that Union received in March 2012 at Boardwalk Hall. I expect that when a trophy changes in a conference that alleges that it takes itself and its history seriously that there would be a public announcement regarding the redesign of the trophy. Hockey East did this in 2008 when it redesigned its regular-season championship trophy. Why didn't the ECAC do the same with such a drastic trophy change for the tournament championship?

The ECAC is currently the second-oldest collegiate hockey conference in the nation. It will be the oldest conference when the 2013-14 season begins. The only way that title is challengeable is if people argue that retention of one charter member (Michigan Tech) in the WCHA Lite makes it the clear heir to the historic WCHA. I am not convinced that it does. I digress. The ECAC is at least the second-oldest collegiate hockey conference in the nation whose constituent members include the oldest universities in the nation to sponsor NCAA hockey and the oldest hockey programs in the nation.

The ECAC Championship is the second-oldest collegiate hockey tournament championship recognized in the nation. The WCHA crowed its first champion in 1952. The ECAC crowned its first champion in 1962. The CCHA did the same a decade later. The ECAC Championship trophy was named in honor of former ECAC Commissioner Robert M. Whitelaw in 1989. The Broadmoor Trophy became the standard WCHA Championship trophy in 1985. The Lamoriello Trophy did for Hockey East in 1988. The CCHA Championship trophy was not recognized as the Mason Cup until 2001. By either metric, the Whitelaw Cup is one of the oldest and most historic tournament trophies in college hockey.

Three of the four named historic tournament champion trophies have one thing in common: absolute consistency in appearance over most of their lifespan. The Broadmoor Trophy, Lamoriello Trophy, and Mason Cup follow this trend. The Whitelaw Cup does not. The appearance of the Whitelaw verifiably remained unchanged from at least 1997-2011. It likely was unchanged much longer. Even if the simplistic cups in Cornell's locker room that are not indentifiable to an eye, such as mine, that has not seen them in-person are earlier versions of Whitelaws, why the change now again? Moreover, why the change in 2012 without any publicity?

The ECAC celebrated its move back to Lake Placid as the appropriate choice with claims emphasizing the historic nature of the league and once-and-future host venue. I am sure that in 2014 there will be no shortage of marketing that heralds the ECAC Championships in Herb Brooks Arena as "the oldest and most legendary hockey programs in college hockey in the most famous hockey arena in the United States." It is a nice catchphrase, but as a conference and fanbase if we do not value the history and prestige of our most prestigious honor, do we really deserve such appellation? Can we really claim that we care that much about the history of the conference and winning its grandest trophy if we allow the embodiment of that achievement to change without questioning those whose hallmark decisions include moving the tournament outside of the league's geographic footprint for increased television coverage and then having no such coverage but a year later?

I've offered many questions, but few answers. I am not sure what the answers are. But, I know that it is wrong when a historic conference abandons its traditional trophy, the one that even appears in its formal press releases still, and the first that loyal fans know of this is when it is handed off to the captain of that year's championship team.

I hope that it was just the Jersey Shore getting to Mr. Whitelaw. He made some bad decisions and ended up not looking quite the way he used to. Maybe it was the G.T.L. lifestyle or the gambling or the women. Maybe he hired a double when he realized he would not be on national televsion. Maybe all of the above. But, I hope that the ECAC and Mr. Whitelaw will take this as a sincere invitation to bring the original back. We preferred him. The version that was rolled out in 2012, even though in some ways more aesthetically pleasing, was not a Whitelaw Cup. That version deserves to suffer the same fate as the television show referenced in the title of this post and the ECAC stint in Atlantic City.

I hope to see a scene like this in Atlantic City in March 2013 with the real Mr. Whitelaw

The prospect that the ECAC announcement that was rumored to occur on Tuesday would be streamed or televised were fairly bleak considering the league's inability to secure a network to broadcast the league's marquee event. However, around midnight last night (12:00 am Tuesday), the ECAC page added a splash image as its intro to the men's ice hockey page. The image, for those who are unfamiliar with the Lake Placid facilities, is that of the outside of the Olympic Center facility that is attached to the much more famous Herb Brooks Arena.

The formal ECAC announcement came at around 11:10 am on Tuesday. The ECAC formalized that the league had come to a three-year agreement with Lake Placid under which the ECAC would crown its champions for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 seasons in Herb Brooks Arena. ECAC Commmissioner Steve Hagwell sung the praises of the bond between the ECAC and Lake Placid, and stated that "Lake Placid has a special bond with ECAC Hockey."

Considering the news, I thought that it was befitting to take a more extended look at where the ECAC will host its championships and where Cornell will seek additional ECAC Championships in the near future. I feel that the pros and cons, and hopes and fears have been discussed extensively. If you missed WAFT's take, it's here. Thank You Terry, a blog that focuses upon Penn State hockey and one of the best blogs dedicated to college hockey (TYT is a blog that college hockey fans should read if they are not already), mentioned and complimented WAFT's analysis in a much-appreciated shoutout to this new blog in his Three Stars. Adam Wodon offered similarly extensive analysis back in April. Needless to say, Wodon and WAFT are solidly in the pro-Lake Placid camp. That is firmly established. So, this post continues with the different angle of looking at what members of the Faithful can look forward to when Cornell seeks its fourteenth ECAC title in 2014 (wishful thinking, I know).

A look that captures the internal setting and ambiance inside the Arena

The most striking element in the above pictures is the intimacy of the Arena. I'm very much of the opinion that what distinguishes college hockey from professional-level hockey is the physical and personal connection between the fans, teams, and the players. That is why even sold-out college hockey events at NHL arenas strike me as somewhat off. They do not feel like college hockey events. Red Hot Hockey is a superb event that I hope continues into the future and I plan to attend the clash between the Wolverines and Big Red in November, but the ill-defined sterility of pro arenas remove certain elements of the college hockey experience. I leave each of those great events lacking the sense of belonging that games at college hockey barns provide even though ~14,000 Cornell fans reliably make The Garden much louder than any Rangers game. Admittedly, the connection to the building between fans is lost at any neutral site, but the aesthetic feel and the size of Herb Brooks Arena makes the viewing experience more akin to the experience offered at other college hockey rinks and Lynah than the experience afforded fans if the event were held in an NHL arena. I think this is an often overlooked aspect of college hockey that the Herb Brooks Arena does not sacrifice while TD Garden, Joe Louis Arena, and Xcel Energy Center do.

Will this be your seat when Cornell faces off for another ECAC title?

Herb Brooks Arena and the Olympic Center are brands in themselves.

An odd fixation of some is the desire that the host of their league championship repaints the ice to commemorate the championship series. Albany did no such thing in 2010. Atlantic City, in its characteristic and respectable devotion to promoting the ECAC Championships in AC, did. The primary issue with AC was not what laid beneath the ice, but the ice itself. The scheduling of events at Boardwalk Hall forced AC to produce and maintain ice at the beautiful facility far too late to have hockey-worthy ice. Lake Placid will present no such challenges with a figure skating- and hockey-devoted arena. The benefit with Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena is that I think that if the above insignia appears instead of the ECAC logo, few fans would be irked because Lake Placid is as much of or, perhaps, more of a marketable brand than what the ECAC is currently.

The ECAC appeared not to make any revelatory statements about the main concerns of many fans including television coverage or hotel policies in Lake Placid according to early reports from the conference. WAFT will keep you appraised of any information as it arises. Adam Wodon asked the questions that matter most to fans. In summary, his article has Commissioner Hagwell stating that "more and more networks say, '[y]ou produce the games and we'll air it.' So I don't see any obstacles in terms of production, because we can hire a crew." Director of Events at the Olympic Center Jim Goff added that several production companies are based in Lake Placid and have experience producing broadcasts that are syndicated internationally.

The league made it clear that the 2013 ECAC Championships is the last that will be held in Atlantic City in the near future and that 2014 will mark the return of the ECAC Championships to Lake Placid. WAFT is excited about this announcement, its potential to help the league, and looks forward to joining members of the Lynah Faithful in the most historic arena in United States hockey history. Let's hope that Lake Placid has a few miracles in store for the ECAC and Cornell this time around.

The ECAC community was intrigued yesterday with the early announcement from Ken Schott that the ECAC had decided that its league championships would be held in Lake Placid, NY once again. The reports were echoed in releases from College Hockey News and USCHO.com. The consensus appears from most college hockey media that the ECAC entertained bids from Providence, Albany, and Lake Placid, but concluded that a return to the North Country for its weekend league championships series had more to offer. Reactions have been mixed. Here's what WAFT thinks the Cornell perspective should be.

It may be a little awkward for some of the Lynah Faithful to scream "Let's Go Red" in the historic confines of Herb Brooks Arena.

The VenueHerb Brooks Arena would host the ECAC Semifinals and Finals for the 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16 seasons. The capacity of the Arena is 7,700. The capacity pales in comparison to the capacities of Boardwalk Hall (10,500) and the Times Union Center (14,236) where the championship tournament has been held since it left Lake Placid in 2002. This is where perspective is important. The 2012 ECAC Championship game between Harvard and Union drew at most 4,131 in Atlantic City. The 2010 ECAC Championship game between Union and Cornell drew 6,505 in Albany. Both attendance values fit comfortably within the capacity that Herb Brooks Arena provides. The draw of the ECAC is not one that can presently demand that its league championship game be held in a venue like Madison Square Garden, especially when attendance values tend to plummet when Cornell and the Lynah Faithful are not involved. That is a reality. The ECAC may have begun in March 2012 to dispel rumors that it represents a sub-par brand of hockey with Union's Frozen Four appearance and Cornell's upset of Michigan, but it has not overcome its established history as a small draw. Concerns about the arena size are unfounded because the ECAC has not proven that it can fill an arena the size of Herb Brooks Arena. Furthermore, even if the ECAC begins to fill Herb Brooks Arena in the near future, a full medium-sized arena presents a better and more marketable image than the same volume crowd in a larger venue like Boardwalk Hall or the Times Union Center. The attendance capacity should be of little concern to ECAC fans generally and the Lynah Faithful in particular.

The recurring issue that has emerged and one that has been rumored to be an issue of contention among the few ECAC programs that did not approve of the move to Lake Placid is the fact that Herb Brooks Arena has an Olympic-sized ice sheet. Historically, the ECAC justified that playing on an Olympic-sized sheet was advantageous to the league members going on in the season because under previous iterations of the NCAA tournament venues with Olympic-sized sheets were included or even preferred for selection for NCAA tournament game sites. The change of the NCAA tournament structure to its current form eliminated this advantage. The NCAA selection committee now chooses venues that have NHL-sized ice sheets exclusively. The fact that the surface at Herb Brooks Arena is one different than those played on earlier in the season causes each program to adapt its game to a larger ice surface without any identifiable benefit in return.

Some who are more familiar with Herb Brooks Arena than I have stated that the locker room facilities are below the current standard level of facilities at the NCAA Division I level. I cannot speak to the accuracy of these statements, but the negatives with the venue seem to be limited to the ice surface and possibly the locker rooms. However, it must be noted that the Team USA U20 Development Program has been using the facility during the week before and weekend of this leak, and there have been no discernible complaints about the facilities even during the summer months. It appears that any shortcomings in locker room facilities in any respect during the ECAC's previous tenancy in Lake Placid have been addressed. The lingering issue is the ice surface size.

View of Whiteface Mountain from south of Lake Placid.

The HostSome fans familiar with the ECAC's previous era in Lake Placid from 1994 to 2002 remember that the resort community was one that clung to its arcane hotel cancellation policies that made it difficult for fans who booked hotels before their teams advanced out of the first-round or quarterfinals of the ECAC Tournament to cancel their reservations at all or without severe penalty if the fans's team did not survive to the ECAC Championships. I was neither a Cornell hockey fan nor an alumnus during this era, so I cannot speak to how the hotel industry in Lake Placid functioned before the ECAC played its last tournament game in the resort town in 2002. However, a cursory inspection of most hotel sites with cancellation guidelines and policies indicates that hotels in Lake Placid, like many in the industry, have abandoned these practices and do not cling to the criticized practices any longer. The practices, platforms, and presence of hotels on online fora have changed markedly with the development of Web 2.0, an advent that has occurred since 2002, and it seems unreasonable to conclude that Lake Placid is behind the times until proven otherwise. It appears that the hotels in Lake Placid will not present such challenges to traveling members of the Lynah Faithful.

The relation between setting and television coverage has been discussed. The 2011 ECAC Championship Final between Cornell and Yale was broadcast on the hard-to-find CBS Sports Network. The 2012 ECAC Championship Final was covered on no major television-based platform. RPI TV did an amazing job with its coverage. It was higher quality than most college hockey games broadcast all season from any network. However, the ECAC needs national television coverage to build upon its recent national successes. While the Michigans and Notre Dames of the college hockey world can point to their coverage on the Big Ten Network and NBC Sports, the ECAC and Cornell cannot boast of any similar deals. Even for their championship series. Last season's coverage from RPI TV if syndicated to a national or regional network would have been an ideal situation. It would have demonstrated the accomplishments of a member school while celebrating the athletic programs of those competing. No matter the means, the ECAC must use the brand that is Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena to gain coverage of the ECAC Championship Final, if not the entire Championships series.

The now-defunct Empire Sports Network broadcasted the ECAC Championships when they were hosted in Lake Placid. Geographic seclusion would seem precluded as an argument against broadcasting from Lake Placid considering the success of doing such for the same tournament a decade ago. The MSG Network acquired the regional presence of the Empire Sports Network. MSG has high viewership in Upstate New York and broadcasts regionally specific programming through the year (Sabres coverage in Upstate New York, Rangers and Islanders coverage in Downstate New York). Its geographic footprint could broadcast it to the former market of the Empire Sports Network or decide to include the Downstate New York region as well where many alumni of ECAC institutions live and work. MSG claims that it enjoys covering college hockey and has respectable viewership numbers when it broadcasts the biannual BU-Cornell Red Hot Hockey games. This could be another event that it carries, even if it chooses to syndicate RPI TV's spectacular coverage or places it on a peripheral MSG Network station. The history of the Empire Sports Network in broadcasting the ECACs from Lake Placid, the greatest density of ECAC fans, the MSG Network market, and the branding of Herb Brooks Arena seems to support the conclusion that Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena should increase the likelihood that the finest teams of the ECAC face off against one another in the ECAC Championship Final in prime time.

The natural splendor of the host of the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Games scarcely can be overstated. The resort town sits in the shadow of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack Mountain Range. Many who can remember the ECAC Championships in Lake Placid remark about how the community focuses upon hosting an event of the caliber of the ECAC Championships. It is unfair to claim that Atlantic City neither focused upon nor catered to the ECAC Championships. The City was very welcoming and promotions were distributed widely within and without AC. However, there is an air about the ECAC Championships playing in New York State (the home of half of the ECAC member schools) and the winter feel of the Adirondacks in mid-March that makes Lake Placid feel more the appropriate setting for the ECAC Championships than Atlantic City. What sets Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena above the other interested communities and venues is history.

The AuraNo American hockey fan needs explanation as to the significance of 1980, Lake Placid, and Herb Brooks. The players, including Cornell sophomore forward Cole Bardreau, at the Team USA U20 Development Camp during this leaked announcement, remark how amazing it feels to play on such a historic stage with such rich history. It was the ice on which an image was taken that inspired the only cover of Sports Illustrated that ran without caption. It is where a player from BU began the unthinkable and put the United States ahead of the Soviet Union, and endeared himself to many of the Lynah Faithful as shown with their thunderous applause at each Red Hot Hockey that Mike Eruzione attends.

Many worry that the appeal and emotion of the 1980 Olympic game between the Soviet Union and the United States is lost on the current generation of players and fans who were born well after the miracle. I am such a fan and I can attest that it is not. There is palpable excitement about watching a game in Herb Brooks Arena. Most of the 2010 Team USA hockey roster could not remember the 1980 miracle, but it rang no less significantly for them. Ours is the generation of Miracle, the film, not the event, but the ethos, legend, and investment is not lost on us. Herb Brooks and the 1980 team are more legend than men, and for this, perhaps we venerate Lake Placid, the coach, and the team more than even the generation who witnessed it because they have become truly larger than life.

It is for these reasons that Lake Placid will help recruiting, especially in the United States. It is a historic site. It is hallowed ground for American hockey. American athletes will thirst for the opportunity to hoist an earned and respected championship cup above their heads in the same arena where Jim Craig draped an American flag around his shoulders. Cornell's roster has become noticeably more American in recent years and this will help maintain Cornell's recruitment of American players to play on East Hill.

Some worry that the effect upon recruitment is overwrought for a league that recruits heavily in Canada. This oversimplifies realities. Objectively, Canadian hockey players know that a defeat of the Goliath that was Soviet hockey is significant and respectable. They need look only to their own defeat of the Soviet Union in the Summit Series to realize the importance for Canadian hockey culture. This misses noticeably the personal connection that many American players feel with the history at Herb Brooks Arena. Cornell stands advantaged in this respect.

Lake Placid hosted the ECAC Championships nine times. Cornell was 6-4-0 at Lake Placid over that span including winning the ECAC Championship twice under Schafer. However, those statistics are not the most salient point for a program that values its history so highly. It was in Lake Placid that John Hughes, Brian Cropper, and Ned Harkness completed the unprecedented and still unequaled feat of completing an NCAA Division I season undefeated and untied with a 6-4 win over Clarkson in 1970. Cornell players and Cornell recruited players of all national origins should feel a connection to the achievement of that goal in Lake Placid. Lake Placid is where the greatest miracle in United States hockey occurred and where Cornell hockey achieved a level of play to a level that no other program has attained.

The ECAC will make Lake Placid its home while Cornell will be home in Lake Placid already.

The 1980 Miracle on Ice might be the most famous sporting event to occur in Lake Placid, but it is not the only hockey event of import to Cornell hockey history.

Author

Where Angels Fear to Tread is a blog dedicated to covering Cornell Big Red men's and women's ice hockey, two of the most storied programs in college hockey. WAFT endeavors to connect student-athletes, students, fans, and alumni to Cornell hockey and its proud traditions.